Buy like a king, spend like a beggar at Liberty’s this Christmas
Christmas is all about scale. You want to feel like a little kid all excited and running around-y, surrounded by glittering ornaments, mysterious presents, huge stern oil paintings, and creaking floor boards. Not everyone has a whacking great house to go back to and indulge in this sort of fantasy, but the next best thing is to do your Christmas shopping in the enchanted confines that is Liberty of London. Think of it as being in a giant attic in a splendid old house. Where everywhere you look amazes and delights. And, even better, doesn’t have to cost the earth.
You can get gorgeous gifts for under £20 or so…
you just have to know where to look.
Christmas at Liberty starts at the Christmas Store on the Fourth Floor. Here, there is every kind of decoration ranging from a £1.95 silver star to a £395 white unicorn. A compromise could be made with a large feathered white owl for just £39.95 and add magic.
Resist the urge to splurge your cash on the tree trinkets though, and instead pop into the next room where Gifts of Christmases-past are piled high. There is nothing here that a Chelsea Pensioner wouldn’t recognise, yet it’s not fuddy-duddy or cloyingly retro. There are plastic spiders,sudoko books, and finger shockers. But the focus is on old fashioned treats galore: and lucky for you and any child under ten that you know, there are oodles to buy under a fiver:
Spider Puzzles, Xmas Stamp Set, Robot Sharpener Giant Wooden Dice, aniseed balls and white mice.
And for Grown Ups there’s every type of Panettone you can imagine. Slabs of chocolate studded with marshmallows, clown faces, and white chocolate high heels to nibble on.
Everyone says that it’s a credit crunch Christmas. So, get in the spirit of Make Do and Mend and get a loved one into the habit of frugality and fixing things with a flowery retro sewing box (£25). Or a sweet little pincushion kit for £9.95 which has all the budding tapestry artist needs: and pictures range from robins, taxis to rabbits.
Or for more old fashioned wonder what about a Bookmark kit? Just £5.95 buys you hours of finger-pricking fun…but worth it as the resulting image is a fairy tale castle.
The Bath Shop on the third floor is a rabbit warren of delights. And they don’t have to be expensive. Nesti Dante soaps look impressive and smell divine. Take your pick from iris, pumpkin, fig and almond, Cyprus…Price? £3.50.
There’s Floris, Neals Yard, Cath Kidston, Elizabeth W and the funky Kings and Queens (who do delicious shower gels for just a fiver. Perfect for the teenage man in your life.)
Can you get a bargain bit of jewellery at Liberty? The answer is Yes. And Yes again. Liberty has the answer for you if you don’t want to spend more than £20.
(It also has the answer for you if you want to spend a few thousand pounds too, but that’s for a different article.) The goal is to purchase a stylish bauble for £20 or under, yet have it wrapped so it looks like it is worth 3 times the amount you paid for it. Needs must…
Visit the main Jewellery room on the ground floor and go to the lovely Lola Rose table. Grab a beaded bracelet for £20 (pick from black, jade green, pink, boiled sweet red, caramel) and go to the counter safe in the knowledge that by the time they’ve put it in a pink velvet Lola Rose pouch, then put this pouch into a Liberty box, them put ribbon around it, your penny pinching gift now looks worth three times its value. This is a perfect gift for a slightly boho woman.
Men are notoriously difficult to buy for. If they don’t want a gadget…or you don’t want to get them a gadget, Liberty can help. Go to the basement for this part of your day. Before you spend anytime looking at the scarves, Paul Smith clobber, Dries van Noten suits and Deschamps socks, have a fortifying glass, or two, of bubbly at the champagne bar. Then get cracking on those masculine gifts. Cool T-shirts start at £35, lotions and potions from Murdock’s barbers will have every man smelling of roses…or almonds, all Christmas long. A leather manicure kit starts at £22, or go the whole hog and treat your male friend to a shampoo and haircut (full barber style) for £34.50 – they’re even throwing in a free mini facial.
Still stuck?
If the original film posters which start at £495 are a little steep, a more reasonable gift is I Never Knew that About London by Christopher Winn. Or the trump card…a Wallpaper Guide to any number of exotic cities which is just £4.95. Cheap and cool.
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